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Spore the big winner again at Los Angeles video game trade show
1 June, 2006
Once again, the PC game Spore was the class of the E3 trade show. The game has players taking a race from single-celled organism to the space age.
Spore, by Maxis-Electronic Arts for PC, was a big winner again this year at the Game Critics Awards, which come out of the E3 video game trade show in Los Angeles.
It won Best Original Game, Best PC Game and Best Simulation game.
"With Spore, storied game designer Will Wright (Sims) is taking "god" games to the Nth power, creating an original game that we expect will devour many hours peeling back its many layers," wrote Mike Snider of USA Today in announcing the award for best original game.
They're judged by an independent group of journalists from 38 North American outlets that cover the video gaming industry.
Spore also was a big winner in 2005, taking Best of Show, Best Original Game and Best PC Game.
Source: http://money.canoe.ca/News/Other/2006/06/01/1610337-cp.html
Read the Wall Street Jurnal Interbiew - Master of the Universe, Will Wright - Spore Creator, Meet the man
Spore - E3'06 First Look Preview
Five years in development, TVG charts the evolution of Will Wright's latest project...
Jon Wilcox
30 MAy, 2006
First there was SimCity, and the people were pleased for they could build little cities and trade with their neighbours. Then there was SimCity 2000 and 3000, and they introduced more complex structures for the people to enjoy... which they did. And then the Lord (Will Wright) created The Sims, and people could enjoy forming their own little families and their perfect homes thanks to innumerable expansion packs. And then He sat back and did not rest upon his laurels, for He thought about the next sim that he could produce, one that dealt with evolution. And so Spore was born...or at least conceptualised, before being debuted at GDC'05. TVG got a further look at the game behind closed doors at E3 2006.
Five years in development, when it was at times also referred to as 'Sim Everything', Spore sees players follow the evolution of single-cell organisms' right through to the eventual exploration of a galaxy. Massive in its premise and ambition, and one that encompasses about three billion years worth of time in the real world, Wright's title sees gamers develop the basic creatures into land-dwelling animals, through the different stages of civilisation building, before taking the ultimate leap into space and interplanetary colonisation.
Split into six distinct areas, the development of a player's species is played out not only in the various gameworlds, but also through the six editors that allow gamers to change varying aspects of their creature and its civilisation. The premise might sound a little heavy, but thanks to the visual style that's been adopted by Wright and his team, Spore will almost undoubtedly open up the audience. Colourful and stylised, the direction is sure to persuade gamers that it's not the boggy software equivalent of Darwin's "Origin of the Species", coming across, in many ways, as being more accessible than The Sims.
Spore: The first area, the Tidepool Phase, sees gamers and their single-cell organism swim around a 2D water-based environment as they eat weaker organisms - much like the videogame classic Pac-Man. After a while the evolving organism will lay an egg, which when hatched, allows players' to take that first vital step in evolving their creature into something a little more complex. Adding larger jaws could perhaps allow the creature to eat a different types of organism, whilst the development of a fin would make the organism that much quicker in the primordial gloop.
Eventually moving into the second segment, the Creature Phase, players will find themselves shifting into more complex areas, such as whether the beast will be a carnivore or not; a social animal or a predatory one; etc... Such attributes come down to the respective editors used in the game. Developing a more complex animal opens up a wealth of options to the player, though thankfully Wright and his team have worked to ensure a high-level of user-friendliness throughout. Moulding the initial shape like a lump of clay with the mouse, which procedurally generates the appropriate backbone, players can then begin to add legs, jaws, eyes, and other physical attributes that help to define the characteristics of their creature. Species are broken down into seven characteristics: Power, Speed, Stealth, Herbivore, Carnivore, Sense, and Social; sharp teeth suggesting a carnivorous diet, certain legs would mean that the creature could move quicker or stealthier, and so on. From there players can then decide on the colouration and pattern that the creature can have, thanks to a three-layer paint design that allows players to build up its distinctive look. Beginning underwater before evolving into a potential land-based animal, the primary objective of this stage is to develop a significantly sized brain, enough for the species to progress into the beginnings of a civilisation. The social attributes of a creature also forms a key gameplay element when it comes to evolving, and more specifically, reproducing. More social creatures have to find a mate, whilst a more solitary species just has to rely on eating food in order to lay an egg....
Final Word
With an expected release during the second quarter of 2007, Spore is certainly shaping up to be a huge title for next year and EA. With the sort of creativity and customisation seen in The Sims, but with more of a purpose than its predecessor, Spore has the possibility of appealing to a wide range of gamers. There is the question of how the gameplay will flow through the course of the six phases, but from what we've seen so far there shouldn't be too much of problem. There have been strong hints about the possibilities of the game being developed for a number of console platforms, including one for the Wii, though for the moment Spore remains a PC title. Read Full Article
Details On Spore Take Shape, Screens
Sim City let us build our own metropolis. The Sims let us build an ideal life. Spore, Will Wright's latest simulation-creation, lets you build the entire history of a species.
Many games bill themselves as revolutionary, and Maxis' evolution-centered title could be just that when it hits the PC in early 2007. Described as "an epic journey that takes you from the origin and evolution of life through the development of civilization and technology and eventually all the way into the deepest reaches of outer space," the game is one of the most-anticipated in years for the PC, and we've got our hands on some details on how it'll play, in addition to a set of brand new screenshots.
Begin your odyssey at the dawn of life as a simple microbe just trying to survive, then use the fun, intuitive Editors to evolve the creature from its microscopic origins into an intelligent, tool-using race. Guide your species as it builds (and the player designs) villages, buildings, cities, and vehicles. Along the way to becoming a global civilization you can choose whether to hunt or forage, attack or trade, be nice or play rough!
All the action takes place in a huge, lush world populated with creatures evolved by other players and shared over SPORE’s central servers. When it’s ready, your one-time pond scum launches into space in its UFO on a grand voyage of discovery, planet forming, or destruct-ion! As you explore and play in this limitless universe of unique worlds, your personal Sporepedia tracks all the creatures you’ve met and places you’ve visited.
• Take complete control of your creature’s fate as you guide it through the following six evolutionary phases:
- Tidepool phase: Fight with other creatures and consume them to adjust the form and abilities of your creature. It’s survival of the fittest at the most microscopic level.
- Creature phase: Venture onto dry land and help your creature learn and evolve with forays away from your safe haven. Carnivore or Herbivore? Social or Independent? The choice is yours.
- Tribal phase: Instead of controlling an individual creature, you are now caring for an entire tribe of your genetic craftwork. Give them tools and guide their interactions as you slowly upgrade their state of existence.
- City phase: Bring your creatures’ race into a new golden era by building up the technology, architecture, and infrastructure of their city.
- Civilization phase: Once your city is established, your creatures begin seeking out and interacting with other cultures. You can have them do so with an olive branch or a war cry -- either way, the goal for your creatures is to unify the planet.
- Space phase: The time has come to move on to other worlds in your solar system. Make first-contact, colonize, or terraform, then venture further to find other solar systems scattered throughout a magnificently rendered galaxy. A ‘mission’ structure provides new goals and paths to follow as you begin to spread through the universe.
• A suite of flexible, intuitive creation tools leverages the creative imagination of the player. Creating an entire universe of creatures, plants, buildings, vehicles and planets has never been so easy or so fun. An infinite variety of design choices is just the beginning.
• The world you explore is populated with creatures, plants, buildings and vehicles developed by other gamers and downloaded from a central database. The server chooses creatures and civilizations that best match your chosen environment, your experience level, and your creature’s ability. In turn, your creatures are uploaded to the server to be shared with other gamers.
• With procedural animation, your creatures and vehicles move based on how you construct them. They behave and interact based on your input and by their in-game encounters. That means there’s no pre-determined path you must follow -- the game evolves based on your decisions.
• Wonder what another gamer was thinking when they created and evolved a creature? Uncover information about each creature’s origin in the Sporepedia, yet another way to explore the truly endless universe of creative expression that is SPORE.
Source: http://news.gaminghorizon.com/media2/1149268740.4286.html
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